


40 seconds to endgame

by setosdarkness



Series: OTP Collection - JuHaku [31]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: JuHaku Week, M/M, Prompt: Depravity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 21:59:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3356789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setosdarkness/pseuds/setosdarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hakuryuu is only 40 seconds away from ultimate freedom from that witch. Judar doesn't understand why he won't take it. [Death Note AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	40 seconds to endgame

•••

A black notebook hits the back of Hakuryuu's head, though since this is part of an almost daily ritual, he doesn't bother to turn around and glare at the culprits. The cram school instructor simply adjusts his glasses as he continue writing down formula upon formula on the board, uncaring that a bunch of pride-ridden wealthy students think they own the entire town just because their families are worth a couple million.

It's disgusting. Repugnant. Vile.

Hakuryuu keeps his eyes focused straight ahead, hands going through the motions of copying the formulas that will propel his name once again across the top scorers for the country's national ranking examinations. Third place is the highest rank that he has ever achieved, but they say that it's already a great achievement. He's the highest-ranked amongst their district already. He's never good enough for the top spot, but he's working hard.

Even if there are those who bully him because they can't understand his intelligence.

Even if—

"Hey, why are you not fighting back?" Judar suddenly blocks his view of the blackboard, hands on his hips as he looks down at him with a sneer. The cram school instructor audibly panics, calling for order and quiet in the classroom even if he doesn't have the capability of stopping the bullies and he's even more useless against the chaotic force of nature that is the eccentric new student, Judar. "Don't tell me that you're actually a wimp~?"

Hakuryuu adjusts his corrective glasses, fingers trembling. He doesn't think Judar would just suddenly divulge his identity here, but he can't be too sure.

"Please move," he says as politely as he could, making sure that his voice doesn't betray his nervousness with the situation.

He meets Judar's stare head-on, feeling relief flood his veins when Judar rolls his eyes eventually and moves away.

Of course, his reprieve ends too soon, because instead of making his way back to his seat just beside the window, Judar literally kicks out the occupant of the seat to Hakuryuu's right and makes himself comfortable there. He even makes a point of dragging the desk close enough to Hakuryuu's, to the point that there's barely a centimeter's gap between their desks.

Despite the thick tension, class resumes and no further notebooks or balled-up papers make it to the back of Hakuryuu's head.

•••

"You are very weird," Judar tells him straightforwardly just as the two of them make their way back to a place that Hakuryuu's reluctant to call home. Judar isn't actually invited to go with him, but this ritual has been going on for a month now and Hakuryuu feels like he has missed some unspoken deadline to make the other go away effectively.

"You are a pain," Hakuryuu retorts, clutching the straps of his bookbag close to his chest. He doesn't need Judar to call him weird – he hears that enough from his family members, from the teachers, from his classmates. One more person repeating the same words shouldn't bother him so much. His bag is _heavy_ despite it being filled with barely anything aside from a couple of notebooks.

"You are strong though," Judar muses out loud, hands folded at the back of his head as he practically skips ahead. It's been a month since he's been making himself a nuisance in Hakuryuu's life and he's acting as though he's been a part of Hakuryuu's life for the better part of his teenage years. "Very stubborn too."

"I'm not giving you more peaches," Hakuryuu warns, ducking his head closer to his scarf to hide the warmth that blooms there. It's been a month since he's encountered this personification of chaos and he still is stupidly unable to resist blushing whenever the other praises him in such a direct manner.

"You so are~~~♪" Judar singsongs with the certainty that Hakuryuu doesn't want to acknowledge.

It doesn't take long until the two of them reach the intersection that basically splits the district into two – the exclusive wards for the high-rise apartments and the lush mansions and the wards for the rest of the commoners. There are a couple of tattooed guys with shocking colors for their hair, chasing some tanned schoolgirls with very short skirts. A motorcycle gang passes by in a cloud of smoke. A group of wannabe gangsters play around with pocket knives a few meters away.

Hakuryuu itches from the inside as he breathes the same air as these idiots blissfully oblivious of their part in dirtying this world.

The feeling passes when Judar's hand encircles his left wrist, earning the two of them catcalls and whistles from some of the tanned ganguros and some exaggerated disgusted faces from the wannabe gangsters.

Hakuryuu ignores them and doesn't snatch his wrist away.

Judar practically drags him towards his apartment, rented not one hundred meters away from the mansion owned by the prestigious Kou Family, home to high-ranking police officers and politicians alike. Hakuryuu follows the other man at a more sedate pace, going through the motions of removing his blazer and changing into indoor slippers. Judar prefers to make himself comfortable by walking around barefoot, a practice that Hakuryuu doesn't understand and finds weirdly domestic.

It doesn't take long for Judar to get tired of Hakuryuu not being by his side – so he ends up dragging Hakuryuu to his own bedroom, locking the door shut behind them. Judar doesn't bother switching open the lights, but his eyes have that weird shine on them that almost seems to make his red irises glow.

"Hey, why don't you use your Death Note to kill the old crone?"

The mysterious transfer student isn't so mysterious now whenever he says these words.

Hakuryuu leans against the closed door, his back flat against the wood as Judar crowds him there, hands on the sides of his neck.

"I already told you I won't use it now."

"Why?"

Hakuryuu isn't up for starting an explanation about basic human rights and etiquette – and more importantly, the study of cause and effect and foreseeing the tumbling of repercussions. "Just _because_."

"Ehhhh," Judar complains, dragging out the syllable before giving up and bumping their foreheads together lightly. "You're so stubborn, Hakuryuu."

Hakuryuu feels his face grow warmer again. He closes his eyes so that he doesn't get cross-eyed from their closeness. His hands don't shake at all.

"You're even weirder than me, Judar."

"I am," Judar agrees and Hakuryuu feels the other's wicked smile against his lips.

After all, he's supposed to be an investigator tracking the supernatural killing notebook. Instead of sending Hakuryuu to Interpol upon his discovery of the mysterious Death Note upon his person, Judar decides to then follow Hakuryuu around.

It's beyond _absurd_.

But strangely, Hakuryuu doesn't mind too much.

It's kind of comforting to have an ally, no matter how strange, after all.

•••

**40 seconds to endgame**   
_"The human whose name is written in this note shall die."_

•••

"You know… you're pretty easy to find."

Hakuryuu looks up hastily as a voice that he's not familiar with breaks his bubble of concentration as he writes down upon a sheet of paper, name upon name of criminals that soil the world with their filthy actions, filthy thoughts, filthy souls. He memorizes their names, faces, crimes and victims, swearing inside his heart that he will bring justice to this world eventually. He blinks at the guy who intruded upon his table, hidden from the rest of the restaurant's crowd by a huge pot of plant. He struggles to keep his expression neutral – only letting slip the barest amount of irritation at being bothered by a stranger he has no recollection of.

"No need to try to look so _normal_ ," the guy offers, dragging a chair out and setting it right beside Hakuryuu's right arm. He flops into it, the sound of the chair's legs dragging against the wooden floorboards muffled by the general bustling of the crowd around them. "That's gonna be so boring, you know, so let's just skip those parts~~~?"

Instinctively, Hakuryuu understands that this person who just intruded upon his personal space bubble _isn't normal_.

"…You shouldn't show off this netbook so easily," the person whispers almost right into his right ear, an arm snaking around his shoulders. Hakuryuu knows that this person is creating an aura of intimacy so that the milling crowd wouldn't think twice of them and their conversation. "Maybe you should buy those compact TVs instead and stuff inside… huh, let's see, a sandwich bag or something?"

Slowly, Hakuryuu's hand moves to press the 'sleep' button on the netbook he's using to browse through the news articles, while also hiding a layer of hacking into the police database to unearth some of the cases that he knows get buried underneath a mountain of extravagant donations to the top brass.

Underneath his composed façade, Hakuryuu's mind is going over-drive with thoughts about what's happening, mostly centering on this stranger's identity. He doesn't look like someone who works for that woman's corrupt organization and he doesn't seem familiar, despite possessing a striking face that's sure to land him a secure spot in the celebrity world. If this person works for a high-profile underground organization, he surely would have heard of him, because that woman seems to enjoy mixing more of those scum into the police force that's supposed to protect the good, normal civilians.

"…Ah, did I break you?" The stranger asks with a laugh, drumming his right hand on the table. "Maybe I should have introduced myself first, huh? I'm _Judar_."

Hakuryuu stiffens, years of etiquette lessons forcing him to return the other's introduction. But he dislikes this situation still, so he doesn't shake the other's hand, simply bows down his head a little. "…I'm Hakuryuu."

"I _know_!" Judar chirps enthusiastically, a blinding grin on his lips. His eyes are another story though – ruby-red in a shade that's too uncomfortably close to actual blood. They're looking at Hakuryuu as though he's surgically examining each one of his thoughts. "Ah, I know why you didn't react when you heard my name. Let me redo my introduction, okay?"

Hakuryuu doesn't get a chance to response before Judar leans in close enough that he's practically kissing his ear. "I'm the ' _Magi_ '."

In a split-second, Hakuryuu's left arm produces a stun gun hidden in his left pants pocket, mind cleared of all thoughts and hypotheses about the other's identity and objective in approaching Hakuryuu so casually and boldly in public. All he's thinking is to _eliminate_ this person beside him, because this person might not technically be working hand-in-hand with that woman, but he's from ICPO's elite squad of investigators, hailed as _the_ best detective in the world.

From a young age, Hakuryuu has unfortunately been exposed to the knowledge that working for the law in paper doesn't always translate to being a good person who'll protect one's best interests.

This Judar person is an _enemy_.

"Ahahaha! You're so _cute_ , Hakuryuu!" Judar simply laughs in the face of getting hit with a stun gun, his hand making a chopping motion at Hakuryuu's wrist, making him drop his weapon. "I knew you were gonna be _interesting_!"

"What do you want?" Hakuryuu hisses as he nurses his swollen wrist – it wasn't too obvious earlier, but this Judar is _strong_. "You're causing a _scene_."

Judar laughs again, eyes crinkled in genuine emotion. "I'm not the one who tried to taser someone to death, you know?"

"I'm not the one who disturbed someone's study session," Hakuryuu retorts hotly, wary that the person is aware that he has tampered with the stun gun's settings to change its ability from simply rendering someone unconscious for a few minutes, to extending that state to _forever_.

"Ha, details!" Judar bumps their knees together, in a display of excitement. "Anyway, I was supposed to catch you and take the Death Note that you got—nah, no need to deny, I already _know_ —and bring it to my bosses… but you're more interesting than them! So I'd like to play with you more, hm?"

Hakuryuu only smiles wryly on the surface, but his insides are churning and curling, overwhelmed with today's development. It's true that he has received a strange notebook from his older brothers' note to him that he found after they perished from That Incident. But he hasn't used it _ever_ , despite the temptation that he can simply do away with the people that he deems unworthy of further staining this world. He could get rid of that woman forever in just 40 seconds—but aside from the moral issues of simply killing someone that easily, he has to think of the repercussions of his actions, because killing her and landing himself in jail isn't exactly his plan in life. While he doesn't mind being imprisoned if it means being free from her presence, there's an unspoken guarantee that his prison life would be akin to a living hell that'd be filled with atrocities hourly, because that woman has so many connections in all corners of the world.

…and that's not even to start on the plausibility of killing someone simply by knowing their name and face, and by then writing down that name on a blank sheet of paper from a notebook covered in black.

But his brothers entrusted him with that notebook, so there must be some truth to its proclaimed powers.

Also, with the top detective's intrusion to his life, it's almost like he's confirming that there's _something_ behind the notebook's power that he should be using with utmost care.

Hakuryuu steels his resolve, because this is an unexpected development that he can use so he can get the right amount of power to finally end that witch. He can use this person who has appeared before him.

"…I don't know what you're talking about, Judar."

Judar simply laughs, calling him an interesting person.

He can use this person.

After all, if he ends up being a liability, even a top detective like him can die in just 40 seconds.

••• **to be continued**

**Author's Note:**

> …ah, yet another one where I haven't finished;;;;; this one should have 2-4 chapters in total, depending on whether i'll be able to post/write more for the next part;;; rating will definitely go up in the next chapter;;;


End file.
